Full-time: New York Red Bulls 4-2 Chelsea
When is a friendly not just a friendly? When your hodgepodge of homegrown players manages to take out the reigning English champions in come-from-behind fashion: a famous victory at Red Bull Arena. Here’s the match report.
Updated
90 min: Hazard wins Chelsea a corner here late. Can they make something of it? Fourth official announces three minutes of stoppage time.
86 min: Writes Harper from Silver Spring, Maryland by email:
MLS > EPL, confirmed.
Obviously.
83 min: Hazard, on the run, crosses to a wide-open Oscar darting into the area, but Oscar can’t finish.
82 min: Diego Costa with a 10-yard run followed by a shot that nearly made it inside the far post. Alas, it didn’t. Red Bulls still ahead by a pair inside the 10-minute mark.
79 min: Castano, called into action for the first time since coming on a few minutes ago, makes a great save.
GOAL! New York Red Bulls 4-2 Chelsea (Davis, 77 min)
It’s another goal for Davis, a left-footed number from 16 yards. Hard to explain what’s happening here, but one thing it’s not is good defending.
GOAL! New York Red Bulls 3-2 Chelsea (Hazard, 75 min)
And just like that, Hazard has halved New York’s lead with a powerfully struck goal from the top of the area. It’s a flurry of goals!
73 min: Manosalvas, Williams, Akinyode, Heffron, Thomas and Castano on for New York.
GOAL! New York Red Bulls 3-1 Chelsea (Davis, 73 min)
Sean Davis with a thunderous right-footed shot into the back of the net. Two goals in four minutes!
GOAL! New York Red Bulls 2-1 Chelsea (Adams, 69 min)
This stadium is popping as 16-year-old Tyler Adams cleverly moves in between two stationery Chelsea defenders and heads a cross into the back of the net. A beautifully worked goal.
65 min: What a strange second half for Chelsea. Yes, it’s the first pre-season game of a long, long campaign ahead, but surely it would but the fans’ minds at rest if they can raise their level over the next 25 minutes.
61 min: Miller shown yellow for a cross check on Eden Hazard just on the edge of the area. Hazard to take the free kick and finds Diego Costa, who puts a shot on net that caroms off the woodwork. Unlucky!
59 min: The corner is cleared and Chelsea are on the swift counter-attack, but New York’s defenders rally back quickly and defuse it.
58 min: New York has had the ball down in Chelsea’s final third for the better part of the last seven or eight minutes. Impressive and unforeseen. And now they’ve just won a corner.
55 min: Mourinho looks furious.
53 min: New York really turning the screws here. They’re eager for another after that surprise strike!
GOAL! New York Red Bulls 1-1 Chelsea (Castellanos, 51 min)
John Terry with a sloppy back-pass to Begovic and New York’s Franklin Castellanos pounces on the mistake, sprinting forward and pounding the ball into the net for an equalizer. Wow. New York’s plucky persistence finally pays off.
46 min: And we’re back under way at Red Bull Arena.
Reason for optimism for Chelsea fans
Saw this graphic of Jose Mourinho’s league finishes over the last dozen full seasons making the rounds yesterday and thought I’d just leave it right here.
Jose Mourinho's league finishes over the past 12 full seasons. Not bad. (via @imgur) #CFC pic.twitter.com/DbaONT49dm
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) July 22, 2015
Half-time: New York Red Bulls 0-1 Chelsea
That’s it for the first half, which concludes without a minute of stoppage time. So far Remy’s goal is all that separates these sides. Hardly Working 1, Working Hard 0.
43 min: New York with a golden opportunity when Courtois is caught casually playing a ball at his foot, but he recovers in time and the Red Bulls are unable to capitalize. How easily it could be 1-1 right now.
Updated
41 min: Nice cross into the box leads to a few Chelsea chances, none better than a shot by Remy he astonishingly misses from a distance of two yards. Still 1-0 to the Blues.
39 min: Pace has really slowed here. Seems like it’s favored the more methodical, technically astute Blues.
37 min: Another coordinated Chelsea counter-attack, with three Blues making lines downfield, is ended with a well-timed tackle in the box to dispossess Remy.
34 mins: Moses with a nifty move in the area to break down his defender, but the ball skips up and grazes his hand and he’s whistles for a handball.
32 min: Charles from Bend, Oregon chimes in with the following via email:
Moses > Messi
That seems optimistic.
31 min: Chelsea have nearly doubled their lead as the Red Bulls are opened up and Moses nearly clears the keeper for a wondrous strike into a gaping net.
GOAL! New York Red Bulls 0-1 Chelsea (Remy, 26 min)
Chelsea in counter-attack. Moses finds Oscar with a direct forward pass. He takes a few dribbles then finds Remy in the middle of the area, who turns, takes an extra touch and, with all the time of the world, fires a right-footed shot into the back of the net from point-blank range. Well-worked goal by the Blues helped no doubt by a mystifying defensive breakdown by New York.
Updated
24 min: Chelsea building in attack here, but dispossessed right after Ivanovic completed a 60-yard run. Ouch. Quick counter-attack by New York is snuffed out.
22 min: Reynish forced to make a save of a speculative shot from well outside the box, but it’s hardly a taxing effort. On the sidelines the Special One doesn’t look particularly impressed.
20 min: Nicely worked free kick by Chelsea ends with a wonderful chance for Zouma, who can’t put it on the goal. Twenty minutes gone and only the one shot on target so far (from Victor Moses).
19 min: Sean Davis shown yellow for a challenge of Moses. Will be a good free-kick chance here for the Blues.
18 min: Oscar curves it up above the wall, but it sails several inches over the crossbar for a goal kick.
17 min: Plewa hacks Oscar just outside the box and Chelsea will have a free kick from a very dangerous area just outside the box.
15 min: Clattering challenge by Obekop around midfield which might have warranted a booking, but the referee signals to play on.
13 min: Chelsea pulling it back, trying to slow things down. Doing better keeping possession these past few minutes.
10 min: New York really pressing here, perhaps trying to catch Chelsea cold. A shot from Davis is well-struck but off target wide right.
7 min: Another corner to the Red Bulls, who have shown well here early, but it’s easily corralled by Courtois. And now a counter-attack! Just like that Chelsea are thundering down the pitch in concert. Ball falls to Moses, who does a wonderful move to break down his defender before uncorking a shot that’s parried away by Reynish. Amazing how quickly that came from nothing.
4 min: The Red Bulls win the first corner when two Chelsea defenders are forced to close in on a well-played through ball, but it’s easily cleared. Not much going here early.
3 min: Chelsea keeping the ball early from the back. Finally dispossessed near midfield as the Red Bulls move it down into the final third, but can’t create an opportunity. Both sides just feeling each other out early.
1 min: And we’re off! Chelsea in familiar all-blue kits attacking from left to right, while the Red Bulls are in their standard home kits: white shirts with red sleeves and shorts. Sweltering conditions here in North Jersey: 81F with 38% humidity.
Not much longer now
The teams are emerging from the tunnel moments after Blur’s Parklife was blasting over the arena’s loudspeakers.
Chelsea in the house
The Blues are in the building for their first of three pre-season matches in the United States. After tonight, the English champs will face Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday in Charlotte and Barcelona next Wednesday in Washington.
We have arrived at the Red Bull Arena! #CFCTour https://t.co/O8RjRT9hTQ
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) July 22, 2015
The teams!
Here’s a look at today’s starting XIs. We’re told Serbian defender Branislav Ivanovic will be wearing the captain’s armband for the Blues.
New York Red Bulls: Reynish, Miller, McLaws, Stolz, Obekop, Ouimette, Davis, Plewa, Tsonis, Adams, Bedoya.
Chelsea: Courtois; Ivanovic, Zouma, Cahill, Azpilicueta; Fabregas, Mikel; Moses, Oscar, Traore; Remy
Preamble
Welcome to tonight’s friendly between the New York Red Bulls and Chelsea at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey.
Just yesterday in this building, the Red Bulls were cruelly eliminated from the US Open Cup quarter-finals by the Philadelphia Union, who played down a man for 80 minutes after Conor Casey was shown a straight red in the 40th minute. Now they’ll try to pick themselves up for an exhibition against the reigning Premier League champions.
We’ll have the team information ready in short order. While you wait, feel free to re-live Tuesday’s misery below.
Updated
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s Chelsea defender Gary Cahill offering some helpful advice to his England team-mate John Stones. Everton are not happy:
“Are Chelsea a hard club to turn down? Yes, of course,” Cahill said. “In terms of ambition, if you’re a young player in the game, have played in the Premier League like he did a lot last year, and a big club come calling, it’s very difficult to turn down because you want to achieve the most you can in the short period you have in your career as a professional footballer.
“When a top club comes calling, who you know will be firing on all fronts with competitions and medals, that’s ultimately what you want to be playing for. It’s hard to turn down, of course.
“He will look at the club, look at the players, and look at being involved in a squad like ours. When Chelsea came calling for me, it was an opportunity, it was a chance and looking from the outset you may not be sure how it’s going to go. But it’s one you can’t turn down; you have to grab it with both hands. Then you have to work as hard as you can to make it work.”
